Experimental Site
This study will be
conducted in Eguji Sylvanus’s farm at Imeabali Umuigboke Oriuzor, Ezza-North
East Development Centre in Ebonyi State. The piece of land to be used has not
been cultivated for over 6 (six) years, yet the vegetative phase of crops
growing therein indicated that the soil is very poor and soil fertility very
low. The area lies at latitude 060 15.139' N and
longitude 0080 03.670' E, in the derived Savannah
Southeastern agro-ecological zone of Nigeria.
Sett Treatment and
Planting
The sets will be
prepared by cutting whole tubers into sets weighing 100kg and treating it with
Z-force Mancozeb 8 % WP (Dust) and ACT-force Gold (liquid) before planting. The
sets will be soaked in a mixture containing one cup of milk per 10 liters of
water and 70 ml per 10 liters of water (liquid) respectively and air-dried for
24 hours in order to protect the setts against insects, nematodes, bacteria and
fungi attack, respectively in the soil,. The yam varieties will be planted at a
spacing of 1m between plants and 2m between replicates (blocks), one sett will
be planted per mound in rows with a planting depth of 10cm.
Cultural Practices
Weed Control:
Regular manual weeding will be carried out in the field to reduce competition
for available plant nutrients between the yams and weeds.
Fertilizer application:
There
will be no treatment in this experiment. The aim is to determine the effect of
soil fertility on growth and yield of Dioscorea rotundata varieties.
Staking:
Staking will be done 6 weeks after plant with strong bamboo sticks, to ensure
adequate exposure of the leaf surface to sunlight and consequently increase
yield.
Training of Vine:
This is will be regularly done after staking to ensure even spreading and
neatness of the vines to receive sunlight.
Earthen Up:
This will be done 8 weeks after planting to reduce the bulk density of the soil
for easy penetration of water into the soil.
Data Collection
Agronomic data
will be collected and recorded, including:
Ø Establishment of the
plant at 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks after planting, respectively.
Ø Crop
vigor: This will be determined by the length of vine, number of leaves, number
of branches and leaf area index at 8 and 12 weeks after planting, respectively.
Ø Morphological
characteristics of the different varieties.
Ø Yield
attributes: number of stands at harvest
(NSH), number of ware tubers harvested per plot (NWTHP), tuber shape (TS),
tuber surface texture (TST), yield of ware tuber (YWTP, kg per plot), yield of
seed yams, below 1kg (YSTP kg per plot),
number of rotten tuber per plot (NRTP),
total fresh tuber yield (kg per plot)
— Disease
records in a per plot basis
— Data
Analysis
— All
data collected will be analyzed using analysis of variance procedure (ANOVA)
for randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 3 replications. Separation of
treatment means for significant effect will be done by the use of Fisher’s
least significant difference (F-LSD) as described by Obi (1986).
— Table
1.The ANOVA format for RCBD, showing sources of variation and degrees of
freedom, only
Field Layout
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